Two interesting airplane externality incidents occurred this week. The director Kevin Smith was escorted off a plane-he couldn’t lower the arm rest on his seat because he was too fat. Mitt Romney asked the passenger in front of him to raise his seatback during takeoff, and the passenger tried to slug him.
I love Silent Bob in the movies, but Kevin Smith was wrong: Why should he be allowed to impose negative externalities, literally spillovers (of his excess avoirdupois), on the passengers adjacent to him? I have little use for Mitt Romney’s politics, but he was right: Why should his safety in the event of an emergency on takeoff be endangered because the person in front of him wishes to continue enjoying a reclining position?
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By all indications he could indeed fit in a single seat, and even volunteered to to prove it on television in a challenge to Southwest (proceeds of the bet would go to charity).
“Smith insisted that he was still able to put both armrests down and buckle his seat belt, which is Southwest’s standard.”
Seriously. Read the article you linked to.
“Both Smith and the airline acknowledged that he had bought two seats for his original flight from Oakland, where he had spoken at the Macworld Expo conference.”
Also: “Smith insisted that he was still able to put both armrests down and buckle his seat belt, which is Southwest’s standard.”
Do you have a source for your statement that Smith “couldn’t lower the arm rest on his seat because he was too fat”? Smith claims that he was able to lower the armrests, and I have not seen a statement from Southwest to the contrary.
Wow, the Kevin Smith army is out in full force. I guess fatties need to stick together, or is that just gravity doing its thing?
Seriously. If your going to open your mouth on your blog at least get your facts right. If the man was too fat to fit in his seat I seriously doubt he would have challenged Southwest to bring a seat to a nation wide TV show and prove it. Go listen to Kevin Smith’s podcast of the event and stop misquoting articles.
Oh! “Customers of size” are inconvenient to other customers and can be escorted off the plane..
I await new rules for crying babies..
Large people also provide positive externalities in that they purchase more food and thus providing more revenue for supermarkets and their employees.
There’s also the feel-good factor (mean, but often true) that normal-weight people get.